SoCal High School & Prep Tournament News

High School Games: Even Fred
Roggin's Getting Into the Act--(December 10,1997)

Only minutes ago, Fred Roggin of KNBC Channel 4 here in Los Angeles ran his nightly sports report, which featured a high school game highlight from the Philadelphia area.

Penncrest and Strathaven were playing a very close game. The tape depicts Penncrest scoring to go ahead 47-46 with only 20 or so seconds on the clock. Strathaven calls time out, runs a play for a baseline shot, and with only about 10 seconds on the clock, one of the Strathaven player shoots.

The ball hits the rim. It bounces straight up, very high. It comes down, landing on the heel of the rim, up against the backboard.

Just stops.

Doesn't go in, doesn't drop.

The ball just sits there, refusing to move, as the crowd goes nuts.

And as the clock runs out.

According to Roggin, under the Pennsylvania high school rules, the refs were required to call a "jump ball."

Only one big problem: Time ran out while the ball was just sitting on the back of the rim.

So Penncrest wins, 47-46.

As Roggin put it, "Strathaven really got a rim job."

Amazing. He said it on the air, live, in the largest television market in the country, during the most popular sporting news hour of the day.

And we're willing to bet that nobody noticed. Except us.

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